Line #97 Main/TimePassageBeard


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/KnockedUp https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/knocked_up_9.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Nine months later...]]
3
4	->''"Know your beard," [[Franchise/SherlockHolmes Holmes]] had once taught him. "It is a reliable measure for the passage of time, when ''in extremis''."''
5	-->-- ''A Study in Murder'' by Creator/RobertRyan
6
7	A long amount of time passes. A clean-shaven character is shown in the next scene with a beard. Or, if the facial hair is minimal, a full and/or longer beard (and sometimes additionally longer hair on their head) will be seen. Often used in animated media as RuleOfFunny and sometimes involves the beard [[StatusQuoIsGod disappearing in the next scene]], growing on children, or even being ripped off. Nearly AlwaysMale, except in the very few occasions where it is used with women (usually limited to hair length or GirlsWithMustaches parody). A form of ShowDontTell.
8
9	A SubTrope of ExpositoryHairstyleChange. Compare HairTodayGoneTomorrow, PermaShave, and BeardnessProtectionProgram. Can overlap with BeardOfSorrow.
10
11	JustForFun/NotToBeConfusedWith GrowingTheBeard, though growing a beard can be such a harbinger.
12
13	WaitingSkeleton is a more extreme version of the same type of gag.
14
15	----
16	!!Examples:
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Advertising]]
21	* Done in an old Chuck E. Cheese commercial. The voiceover says, "Boring restaurants make you wait...and wait...and wait," while time lapses are shown with a kid sitting at a table waiting, ending with cobwebs and a ridiculously long beard. This is contrasted with the kid excitedly playing games at Chuck E Cheese.
22	* In 1933, several movie theaters [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGA6FyZWoAEMryT.png added beards]] to posters advertising the popular short subject ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs'' to illustrate how long it's been held over.
23	* A commercial for ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' shows a gamer playing a hard sci-fi game with no FasterThanLightTravel. He flies his ship for ages, alternating between his fighter and his increasingly Santa Claus-ish beard and growing collection of [[CobwebOfDisuse spider webs]]. After getting sniped by a battleship, he quits in disgust and plays [=WoT=] instead
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
27	* In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Goku and Vegeta grow beards after training in isolation for a while. While Vegeta ends up looking like his father, seeing Goku with facial hair is just ''weird.''
28	* ''Anime/FistOfTheNorthStar'': Not only does Kenshiro grow a beard in the animated movie in between his assault by Shin and encountering Bat and Lin (And then shaves it using some thug's knife), but he also develops a beard at the start of the second series, shaving it once he finally begins to fight again.
29	* ''Franchise/LupinIII'':
30	** In episode 4 of ''Anime/LupinIIIPart1'', Lupin deliberately turns himself in to Inspector Zenigata and refuses to allow the others to help him escape from prison, instead he comes up with his own method that involves waiting for a year. After the year-long time skip, Lupin has a long scraggly beard.
31	** Episode 89 of ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'' had Lupin holing himself up in a cabin for four months trying to figure a way around a safe's complex security system. His short hair has become shaggy and he's grown a beard in the interim. (Jigen also notes [[SeriouslyScruffy Lupin's in dire need of a bath]].)
32	[[/folder]]
33
34	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
35	* In the ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'' episode "Cast Away", Skinny Doc grows a beard as he spends time searching for Specs Doc and Lamput, who have both been stranded on a remote island.
36	* In ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf: Mighty Little Defenders'' episode 47, Wizard waits for General Wolf for so long that he grows a goatee. The goatee spontaneously disappears after General Wolf comes to the door.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Books]]
40	* ''ComicBook/{{Archie}}'': Archie Andrews grows one while he is waiting for his date Veronica Lodge to be ready. She shows up, asking if she has kept him waiting long, while he is sleeping on a chair with a RipVanWinkle beard.
41	* In ''ComicBook/TheAutumnlandsToothAndClaw'' Learoyd shaves near the beginning of the story and his stubble visibly grows as the days pass.
42	* In the Gold Key comic book adaptation of the ''Series/BuckRogersInThe25thCentury'' movie, Buck Rogers grows a beard during the time he spends in suspended animation while on a deep-space mission.
43	* Female version in ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' after Snow White is [[spoiler: shot in the head by Goldilocks]] at the end of the Animal Farm storyline, she spends the next year recovering, which is shown by her [[spoiler: post-surgery]] clean-shaven head growing out to her usual past-the-shoulder-length locks in the end-of-book montage. This montage also shows the time that was spent cleaning up the mess from the [[spoiler: failed revolution]], allowing a reset without trivializing the scenario.
44	* This is a RunningGag in ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'', where it is usual for characters to have a beard after doing (or waiting for) something like going up a very high building elevator for months.
45	* In ''ComicBook/RevengeOfTheGreenGoblin'', Peter's facial hair gradually increases in "Trick of the Light" to show the amount of time that's passed as he remains Norman's prisoner. By the end of it, he has a full beard.
46	* In a ''ComicBook/RichieRich'' comic book story, Richie has a RipVanWinkle dream where he wakes up years in the future wearing a beard.
47	* Subverted in one issue of ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'', "Tic-Tac-D'oh!", where it looks like this had happened to Homer after a two-month time skip. He's actually just looking at a photo taken from [[NoodleIncident the time he tried]] to join Music/ZZTop.
48	* In ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'' comic book story "The Strange Awakening Of Lazy Smurf", the Smurfs wear fake beards while pretending to have aged 300 years during Lazy's "long sleep".
49	* Franchise/{{Superman}}:
50	** In a Silver Age story where Superman travels to the future where the Earth's sun is now red and all its water is depleted and its citizens have gone into outer space, he eventually grows a beard as he looks for a way to return back to the past, though before he does go back, he shaves off the beard since returning to his own time would make his beard invulnerable.
51	** Superman, in the ''ComicBook/TimeAndTimeAgain'' story arc in 1991, gets a Time-Passage Beard as he is stuck in the prehistoric past with no way of getting home except to expose himself to explosions and powerful energy discharges. The beard is magically removed by Merlin when he removes the spell that Morgan le Fay puts upon him to be her black knight attacking Camelot.
52	** Superman also gets one during the time he spent in space during the ''ComicBook/SupermanExile'' story arc that followed sometime after ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlSaga'', which he ended up removing when he gets his hands on the Eradicator relic given to him by the Cleric.
53	* Done in ''ComicBook/{{Thorgal}}'': after he escapes from caves where time flow was slowed, he wakes up with a long beard the next day. Not at all played for comedy, as the girl he was with had spent most of her life there and got aged into a shriveled husk overnight.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
57	* One ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' strip evokes this trope, showing Paige on the phone, and Jason walking by wearing an obviously fake beard, bald cap, and cane. Paige's response is "I haven't been on the phone THAT long!"
58	* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'':
59	** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2001/10/19 the October 19, 2001 strip]], Jon grows a beard and long hair while waiting by the phone for a woman to call him.
60	** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2020/04/05 the April 5, 2020 strip]], Jon goes from being clean-shaven to having a beard that almost covers his entire face while binge-watching for the first time.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Fan Works]]
64	* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': In [[spoiler:[[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/dungeon-keeper-ami-sailor-moon-dungeon-keeper-story-only-thread.30066/post-6355798 "Mukrezar's Return" (DARK)]]]]: A special imp, after fifteen years:
65	--> "You grew a beard?"\
66	The imp took his hand off the tiny rapier at his hip and moved a finger across the black tuft of hair adorning his chin. "It has been fifteen years, Master,"
67	* {{Parodied\|Trope}} in an unnamed ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' [[https://www.tumblr.com/diadraws/716316397427474432/me-and-my-girlfriend-were-talking-abt-the-funniest fancomic by diadraws]], which takes place several years post-canon because it is postulating that the funniest possible time for the InternalReveal of the TwoPersonLoveTriangle between the show's leads would be their wedding day. The first panel has an artist's note explaining that they [[LazyArtist didn't feel like designing Ladybug's future appearance]], so they [[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS05E04Jubilation just gave her a moustache]].
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
71	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' movie ''[[Recap/FuturamaM1BendersBigScore Bender's Big Score]]'', Fry's continued meddling with time travel after [[FishOutOfTemporalWater returning to his former era]] creates two identical versions of himself, one of whom goes back to 3007 while the other picks up his old life right where it left off. The movie follows the latter until the year 2012 when he returns from a long voyage to the North Pole with a particularly impressive beard. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that Lars, Leela's new paramour, ''is'' this version of Fry and that his more civilized beard is just the remnants of Fry's after [[ItMakesSenseInContext he was singed when Bender blew up his apartment.]]]]
72	* In ''WesternAnimation/JosephKingOfDreams'', Joseph grows a full beard during the time that he spends in prison between his service to Potiphar as a servant and his becoming the governor of Egypt after correctly interpreting the Pharaoh's dreams.
73	* In ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'', Puss goes into retirement after losing his [[CatsHaveNineLives first eight lives]]. After a short montage, he's shown with a beard for a decent portion of the movie.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
77	* Happened to Ash in the deleted alternate ending of ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'', when he "slept too long" and [[DownerEnding overshot the 20th century.]]
78	* In Film/AttackOfTheClones, Obi-Wan Kenobi turns up with a beard that he has grown since the last movie. This was filmed three years after Film/ThePhantomMenace, but ten years have passed in-story. Thus in addition to showing the passage of time, the beard helps baby-faced Creator/EwanMcGregor, now several years younger than his character is supposed to be thanks to the TimeSkip, look a little closer to his character's age. Also, it moves him visually closer to [[Creator/AlecGuinness the older version of his character]] in Film/ANewHope, who also has a beard.
79	* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' shows Steve Rogers with a beard after his time on the run after the Sokovia Accords. Doubles as a BeardOfSorrow, given his more grim demeanor after the breakup of the Avengers.
80	* In ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]'', Ben-Hur (Creator/CharltonHeston) grows a beard while a SlaveGalley.
81	* In ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'', the titular duo time travel to spend 16 months of guitar lessons and return to the present soon after they left with Bill sporting a long ZZ Top beard and Ted with a mustache and goatee.
82	* ''Film/DasBoot'': The German UsefulNotes/WorldWarII submarine crewmen grow beards over the course of several months at sea (even the initially always well groomed First Watch Officer lets his grow eventually, once he's disillusioned enough from Nazism). All of the film's scenes were actually shot ''in order'' so that the beards would grow accordingly.
83	* In the third act of ''Film/TheBounty'' Lt. Bligh and several of those hands loyal to him are set adrift during the mutiny. They grow beards that correspond to their 47-day journey to safety.
84	* Creator/TomHanks' character in ''Film/CastAway'' after living for four years on an island.
85	* ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'':
86	** In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Bruce Wayne grows a beard in the time between leaving Gotham City and meeting Ducard several years later.
87	** In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Bruce Wayne begins the movie with a beard, indicating that years have passed since the end of the previous movie. He shaves it off, but later grows another beard while being held prisoner for months by the League.
88	* ''Film/DieAnotherDay'': When Film/JamesBond is finally freed by the North Koreans more than a year after his capture, he's grown a beard (as well as a mustache and long, shaggy hair).
89	* In ''Film/TheEdge'', Anthony Hopkins grows a beard while stranded in the wilderness, along with his love rival, played by Creator/AlecBaldwin. However, it comes across as unintentionally hilarious since he goes from PermaStubble to a full beard within minutes while fashioning a fish hook.
90	* ''Film/{{Excalibur}}'': Arthur begins the film as a young man. After a TimeSkip in which he's become a mature king, he's shown with a dignified beard.
91	* ''Film/ForrestGump'': Forrest grows a beard during his three years of running cross-country.
92	* In ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'', Creator/ClintEastwood's unnamed character grows a beard.
93	* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', Harry (Creator/ColinFirth) grows one in his hospital bed. It (along with the dogs' growth) helps convey how long the Kingsman assessment actually took.
94	* In ''Film/MajorDundee'', Dundee grows a beard during a period of convalescence.
95	* Matt Damon's character in ''Film/TheMartian'' grows a scraggly beard after a seven-month time skip. He shaves it off before taking off.
96	* In ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'' Diego de la Vega (Creator/AnthonyHopkins), the original Zorro, is imprisoned for twenty years, emerging with long hair and a grey beard, which he keeps and trims for a period, before shaping into a moustache and goatee and finally shaving off entirely as part of a disguise. The reverse happens with his successor Alejandro Murrieta (Creator/AntonioBanderas), who (as an adult at least) starts off with a plentiful beard and gets groomed to a suave mustache.
97	* In ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales'', Josey Wales grows a beard.
98	* In ''Film/Passengers2016'', Chris Pratt's character grows one, although he does shave it off before [[spoiler:he wakes up Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence)]].
99	* In ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968'', Taylor (Creator/CharltonHeston) grows a beard while in hypersleep.
100	* In ''Film/RescueDawn'', Dengler grows a beard while captive in a prisoner-of-war camp.
101	* Parodied in ''Film/SuperheroMovie'', where after breaking up with his girlfriend Rick is next shown with a BeardOfSorrow indicating that a lot of time has passed. Then it turns out the beard is fake.
102	* In ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956'', Moses (Charlton Heston again) grows a beard in the wilderness.
103	* In the Film/{{Apocalypse}} film series movie ''Tribulation'', Tom Canboro wakes up with a beard a few years into the Tribulation after being in a coma from a car accident.
104	* Chrysagon (Charlton Heston yet again) grows a beard over the course of ''Film/{{The War Lord\|1965}}''.
105	* ''Film/TheWonderfulStoryOfHenrySugar'': To show his obsession with reading cards from the back over the next three years, Henry goes from coiffed dandy to having long, unruly hair and an accompanying wild beard.
106
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Literature]]
110	* Arthur Dent grows one of these when he is trapped on Earth 2 million years ago in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' books. He sticks a chicken bone in it because he's decided to go insane.
111	* ''Literature/HomerPrice'': "Nothing New Under the Sun (Hardly)" has Michael Murphy sporting a ''very'' lengthy beard (and hair in general) to indicate that he's been away from civilization for thirty years.
112	* In ''[[Literature/InheritanceTrilogy The Kingdom of Gods]]'', Sieh keeps magically aging whenever he uses too much of his power or does anything particularly unchildlike, such as [[spoiler:remembering he's a father]]. Each time this happens, he ends up with a massive beard and head of hair.
113	* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' [[Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel]] "The Big Game" after an extended period of duty during a crisis Commander Sisko is on his way to having a beard which he looked forward to shaving off after the crisis was over.
114	* A literal version in ''A Study in Murder'' by Robert Ryan. [[Franchise/SherlockHolmes Dr. Watson]] gets thrown into solitary confinement while a POW in [=WW1=] Germany and tries to judge the passage of time by the length of his beard hair.
115	* Tech Detective Neshi in ''Literature/TheWandering'' grows one during the time he spends traveling through space and hibernating inside his spaceship, going from one world to another.
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
119	* At the end of ''Series/TwentyFour'''s fifth season, Jack is taken prisoner by the Chinese government and held there for nearly two years. When he's released in the following season he now has a long, unkempt beard as well as shaggy hair.
120	* In an episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' where Tracy has Frank test out a porn-based video game, Frank thinks he has spent only three hours playing the game, and Tracy points out that he has actually spent ''three months'' playing the game... as evidenced by Frank now having long hair and a beard.
121	-->'''Tracy''': Yes! I'm going to be a billionaire!
122	* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': At the end of the second season there's a nine-month TimeSkip during which Chief Tyrol grows a beard and Bill Adama grows a moustache. In a female example, Starbuck lets her BoyishShortHair grow down to her chest during this time. The beginning of the third season brings another skip of three months, during which Saul Tigh also grows a beard. All four actors [[DyeingForYourArt grew their hair out for real]] for the third season.
123	* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': At the end of season two the gang goes to the North Pole for three months; when they come back in the following premiere they all have shaggy beards ([[PermaShave except Sheldon]], who has a neatly-trimmed goatee).
124	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Blake disappears at the end of season 2, but Avon encounters him as a bearded patient in a hospital a year later (this is also a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as actor Gareth Thomas had grown his beard for a theater role). However, this bearded Blake [[LotusEaterMachine turns out to be an illusion]]. When the real Blake turns up at the end of the series, the passage of time is indicated by a nasty facial scar and PermaStubble.
125	* PlayedForLaughs in episode 7 of ''Series/BrassEye'' where they show a policeman [[https://youtu.be/RcU7FaEEzNU?t=7m5s growing a beard that twists into a figure-eight]] as a part of their sensationalist news story.
126	* ''Series/BreakingBad'': In the episode "Granite Slate", Walt goes on the run when his crimes are exposed, and he's relocated to a remote cabin in New Hampshire. To show how long he's been stuck in hiding, his beard has grown out and his hair has grown back, on top of having gotten much gaunter.
127	* ''Series/{{Crashing\|US}}'': Referenced in one of Pete's go-to bits. He talks about how he can't grow a beard, so if he were ever stranded on a desert island for years, he would look like he'd just arrived there to his eventual rescuers. They'd assume that he just couldn't wait to wear a loin cloth.
128	* Used in the series finale of ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'' to indicate a TimeSkip at the end of the episode. The episode primed the pump early by having the character mention growing a beard, but lamenting that it took him "six months" to grow one, then drove the point home really hard when the beard was revealed and another character said (paraphrased), "Wow, it took you six months to grow that."
129	* A ninth-season episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' features an inversion in the form of multiple cases at the same motel, all occurring within a year of each other. A long-term guest is initially introduced with long, messy hair and a wild-looking beard, but gradually cleans up over the course of that year, including trimming and then shaving his beard.
130	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
131	** The artificially aged Fourth Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E1TheLeisureHive The Leisure Hive]]" grows an incredibly long beard as the result of the process.
132	** In the sixth series, the opening [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut two]]-[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon parter]] has the Doctor (who had always been beardless previously) imprisoned for several months and growing a beard. It happens again in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong the season finale]].
133	** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctor's Wife]]", Amy stumbles across Rory's dead body in a RoomFullOfCrazy, having grown a beard, aged, and eventually starved to death. [[spoiler:Don't worry, he gets better.]]
134	* Crichton does this a few times in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', notably while he's stranded on an alien planet in "Jeremiah Crichton", and the season 4 premiere.
135	* In ''Series/TheFlash1990'' episode "Fast Forward" where Barry Allen jumps ten years into the future, his partner Julio Mendez (who is normally with squidlike hair and a goatee) is seen with [[DreadlockRasta long dreadlocks]] and a full beard.
136	* ''Series/TheFlash2014'':
137	** In "Flashpoint", the imprisoned Eobard Thawne has a stubbly beard in order to indicate that he and Barry have spent several months in the Flashpoint timeline.
138	** In Season 4, Barry Allen is framed for murder and sent to prison for a time. He gets a beard.
139	* ''Series/{{House}}'' the season 2 finale has House awaken from a coma. He determines roughly how long he had been out (three days) by the amount of growth of his PermaStubble.
140	* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Ted becomes part of a very long discussion about Teddy Roosevelt with another man and a woman. He explains it went on for "days" and by the end, the other man and Ted have grown long beards.
141	* In the ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' episode "Out of Time", Ray Palmer is stranded in the time of the dinosaurs and has a massive, shaggy beard and hair by the time he is rescued.
142	* In the Season 3 finale of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', the "flashbacks" are revealed to be [[spoiler: flashforwards]], making Jack's sorrow beard double as a time-passage beard.
143	* {{Parodied\|Trope}} in the ''Series/ModernFamily'' episode "The Old Man and the Tree". In the episode, Phil has bought a crosstrainer. After a while, he loses interest in it and throws a towel over a camera attached to it. When he removes the towel months later, he's suddenly sporting a huge, grey beard - which turns out to be part of the Halloween costume he's wearing.
144	* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': when a milkman's PizzaBoySpecialDelivery is {{Subverted}}, he's locked in a room with many other milkmen with various lengths of beard.
145	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E10WorldsApart Worlds Apart]]", the astronaut Christopher Lindy is stranded on an alien planet. At the end of the episode, he has grown a beard.
146	* ''Series/RedDwarf'':
147	** In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVIPsirens Psirens]]", Dave Lister emerges from [[HumanPopsicle two centuries in stasis]] with not only long hair and a huge beard, but excessively long fingernails as well.
148	** In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXLemons Lemons]]", the crew find themselves in first-century Albion (England) and discover that, to travel back to Red Dwarf, they'll need lemons, which haven't been introduced yet, and are only found in India. After the 6-month trek to India, Lister and the Cat are sporting gigantic beards.
149	** In "[[Recap/RedDwarfThePromisedLand The Promised Land]]", the boys from the Dwarf have been kicked out by Holly and are heading off towards a distress signal which has been sent nearby. Lister insists that they will find the ship in no time. Cut to three months later and the two biological members of the cast (the Cat and Lister) have gained long hair and notable beards.
150	* Invoked in a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' commercial parody advertising [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Long White Beard,]] a fake beard meant to be worn when someone has kept you waiting for way too long.
151	* Parodied in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' when the show catches up with Elliot's ex-boyfriend, who has slipped into depression and not bothered shaving, resulting in a thick, bushy beard despite Elliot having broken up with him just days ago. He explains that he's part Hungarian.
152	* Sherlock at the start of the ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' episode "[[Recap/SherlockS03E01TheEmptyHearse The Empty Hearse]]", during which he'd been kept a prisoner in Eastern Europe. He has it all shaved off by a barber upon his rescue. (This is used [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange as symbolic contrast]] to the moustache that John grows.)
153	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': At the start of the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E19HardTime Hard Time]]", we see a traumatized Chief O'Brien with one at the end of his twenty-year sentence on an alien world. He then wakes up freshly shaven, as the entire experience was an implanted memory forced on him after a trumped-up accusation of espionage.
154	* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
155	** Averted with Chakotay in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E25Resolutions Resolutions]]", which according to WordOfGod they later regretted, as Chakotay spent months on the planet, but as this takes place within a single episode, it isn't obvious to the audience. Later played straight with the same character (to the point of at least growing a Time-Passage Mustache) in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year of Hell (Part 2)]]" when Chakotay and Tom Paris are held prisoner on board Annorax's time ship.
156	** Tom Paris grows one in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E5Alice Alice]]" as he spends most of his time fixated on fixing up the titular shuttlecraft and eventually becoming its slave.
157	* ''Series/{{Taken}}'': In "Jacob and Jesse", eleven years after his last appearance, Russell Keys has a long, straggly beard as he has spent most of the last decade drifting around the country trying and failing to stay one step ahead of the aliens.
158	* Zig-zagged in the ''Series/That70sShow'' episode "It's A Wonderful Life". As Eric is shown what life would have been like if he'd never dated Donna, his guardian angel shows him that Donna would have dated Hyde instead. At one point in this imagined timeline, Hyde is seen sporting a full-length beard as a biker. After a while, they flash forward to the gang's 10-year high school reunion, and Eric sees that his future self appears to have grown a mustache, which impresses him until the angel tells him that it's just chocolate frosting from the cake they served.
159	* Since ''Series/ThisIsUs'' covers three different decades, family patriarch Jack Pearson goes through a beard in the '70s, a mustache in the '80s, and a goatee in the '90s. Whichever facial hair he has onscreen is an indication of the decade.
160	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Shelter Skelter", Harry Dobbs and Nick Gatlin both have full beards after six weeks in the fallout shelter. Harry eventually shaves his but Nick's becomes longer and more unkempt as the months pass.
161	* ''Series/{{Wiseguy}}'': Used to show how Vinnie has let himself go after his TenMinuteRetirement from the OCB. He reluctantly comes shambling down from his bedroom to the dinner table, slumps in his seat, then [[RevealShot lifts his head]] to show a beard that would make Film/{{Serpico}} proud.
162	[[/folder]]
163
164	[[folder:Print Media]]
165	* In an article about how to deal with the loading times of the Commodore 64 disk drive in an issue of ''Electronic Games'', there is a cartoon of a person growing a beard and becoming old as he waits... and waits... and waits... for the game to finish being loaded on his computer.
166	[[/folder]]
167
168	[[folder:Video Games]]
169	* In ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', Gobi the Camel runs away to find the Lava World after Banjo and Kazooie jump on him to water a giant flower in [[FourSeasonsLevel Click Clock Wood]]. When Banjo and Kazooie next meet Gobi in ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'', Gobi is being held prisoner as an exhibit in [[AmusementParkOfDoom Witchyworld's]] Cave of Horrors and has grown a gray beard from being imprisoned for two years.
170	* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'', your character's portrait ages as the years pass (specifically, it shifts an age category higher at thirty and fifty years old, gaining wrinkles in the former and white hair in the latter). If they have facial hair, this trope comes into full effect: what starts off in the youngest age category as simply a full beard, covering the jawline but no more, becomes a full-on Methuselah!Beard in the oldest.
171	* In ''VideoGame/{{Delicious}}: Emily's Hopes and Fears'', Patrick grows a beard during his quest to find a flower for an ailing Paige. He keeps this beard in subsequent installments, although it's better groomed there.
172	* ''VideoGame/DontStarve'' has this as a game mechanic with the character Wilson. While he isn't the only character with a beard, he's the only one capable of growing it over time and shaving it to obtain beard hair to use for dark magic.
173	* During the extended story mode of ''VideoGame/FableI'' the Hero grows a long beard during their ship ride to the Northern waste. Riding a ghost ship like he did it's understandable that he wasn't able to shave or maintain whatever facial style he had before. This also happens when you land in jail if it takes you a few tries to break out (as they TimeSkip a year every time you fail).
174	* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' has a short scene in the epilogue where Eliwood and Hector meet up several years after the events of the main plot, with Hector having grown one of these. By ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', which takes place over a decade later, it's grown even longer.
175	* In the ''Videogame/GodOfWar'' series, Kratos' facial hair grows from a short goatee during his time in Greece to a full-on beard in Nordic Europe.
176	* In ''VideoGame/LegoJurassicWorld'', due to Muldoon, Gennaro, and Nedry being SparedByAdaptation, they have been left behind on Isla Nublar. At the end of the first Jurassic Park levels, Muldoon and Gennaro try to reach the helicopter that's leaving the island only to arrive late and Nedry flees from the ''Dilophosaurus'' by sticking a piece of chicken in its mouth. Then in the Jurassic World levels, we see that Muldoon, Gennaro, and Nedry have been living in Isla Nublar for the next 22 years, living in the old Visitor Center and sleeping in one of the Jeeps. Complete with big grey beards, but their character models are otherwise unchanged, including their hair.
177	* In ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'', Max and his iconic BeardOfSorrow happen to be an example of this. He has some stubble in the first chapter and sports a full beard by Chapter 7, roughly a week and a half later. Passos counts as well, since he bears full facial hair in the first chapter but can be seen with a more modest amount of scruff when he meets with Max in Hoboken [[AnachronicOrder several weeks prior]].
178	* ''VideoGame/PokerNight2'' parodies it with the Necronomicon ending -- all of the other characters FakedRipVanWinkle the player and wears long white fake beards -- including Claptrap, a robot.
179	* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' has dynamic facial hair growth mechanics. Arthur has ten different lengths for his beard as opposed to the seven for his hair, and almost every single one can be cut into a fashion to the player's liking, such as mustaches and goatees. His facial hair will also instantly grow by a few lengths following time skips.
180	* ''VideoGame/RivalSchools'': One of ''United By Fate'''s good endings depicts [[spoiler:President]] Roy Bromwell with one [[DistantFinale 20 years after the game's events]] -- complete with HotbloodedSideburns.
181	* The main male character's beard (or lack thereof) can help you navigate the timeline in ''VideoGame/TellingLies''.
182	* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' advertised its dynamic beard growth mechanics. Which is to say, Geralt's beard actually grows over time until it hits a max length (although you can shave it, at which point it starts growing from the beginning again).
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder:Web Animation]]
186	* The ''WebAnimation/BravestWarriors'' season four episode "Too High, Too Far, Too Soon" has Impossibear sent by the Bravest Warriors to investigate a planetoid. When they finally bring him back to the ship, he has grown a long beard because [[YearInsideHourOutside he was on the planetoid for a century]].
187	* Subverted in ''WebAnimation/FinalFantasyVIIMachinabridged'' when the party is stranded after the Tiny Bronco is shot down. Cloud is shown to have a full beard, but it's then revealed only fifteen minutes have passed and Cloud merely glued hair from his head onto his face.
188	* Taken to almost parodying lengths in WebAnimation/WalrusGuy's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qSBhsvW_zg Gwonam's Great Adventuwe]]" ''[sic]'', where after [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Gwonam's]] BungledSuicide, he awakens from a coma in the emergency room and sees signs that he was out for a long time, including [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] now having grown a mustache and small beard. [[spoiler:Gwonam was only out for a month.]]
189	* In one scene in the "Blood Gulch Chronicles" of ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', Church spends a thousand years standing in a hallway waiting for a computer to fabricate a teleporter ([[CerebusRetcon ...maybe]]). By the end of it, Church has a massive beard drawn on his sprite. Played for laughs, given he's in a robotic body at this point. Developer commentary revealed that at they wanted the computer involved in the scene to have one too, for RuleOfFunny. They ultimately decided against it, citing it as ''too'' ridiculous for the storyline at hand.
190	[[/folder]]
191
192	[[folder:Webcomics]]
193	* In ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'' Aki, [[GenderBender who only recently became male]], grows a beard while he and Goro (and later their daughter, who's an adult by the time they're out) are trapped in a field of accelerated time.
194	* Subverted after the TimeSkip in ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup''. Richard appears to have grown a full beard but several pages later, it's revealed to have been a live sheep he attached to his face. [[spoiler:Becomes doubly funny when it's eventually revealed Richard is a woman]].
195	* Inverted by Roy on ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': after the group has been trapped in a LotusEaterMachine for an undetermined amount of time, he figures it couldn't have been too long since he doesn't have to shave.
196	* ''Webcomic/{{Rain\|2010}}'': The epilogue reveals that Gavin grew his PermaStubble into a mustacheless chinstrap beard.
197	* One Webcomic/SluggyFreelance has Torg attempt to gauge the time they've spent waiting at an airport by the length of Riff's beard, and going back and forth when it turns out to be a prop.
198	[[/folder]]
199
200	[[folder:Web Videos]]
201	* ''WebVideo/ThePerfectCastlevaniaTimeline'' depicts both [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon Nathan Graves]] and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin Jonathan Morris]] with such beards when they are PassingTheTorch to [[VideoGame/Castlevania64 Reinhardt Schneider]] and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow Julius Belmont]], respectively.
202	[[/folder]]
203
204	[[folder:Western Animation]]
205	* In the ''WebAnimation/BecomeJehovahsFriend'' episode "Lesson 35: The Best Use Of Time", Caleb is shown rapidly growing a mustache and also RapidAging the more time he spends looking down on his tablet.
206	* In a rare serious female use of this trope, ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', Della's time on the moon is shown as this. She begins with short-cropped hair barely to her chin, but she lets her hair grow out during the numerous time skips in her episode, ending with her hair all the way down her back.
207	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
208	** The episode "The Boss of Me" has Timmy's Dad and his boss Ed Leadly grow long beards after testing the ever-lasting pencil Timmy wished for to determine if it truly can't be used up.
209	** In "Beach Blanket Bozos", Timmy's parents compete with one another to see who's a better surfer and it goes on until they, Timmy, Cosmo, Wanda and Poof have all grown beards.
210	** Spoofed in "App Trapp", where Timmy is shown with a white beard after spending 9 days using his magic smartphone Chatty. Apparently, there was an app for it.
211	** "Hero Hound" shows Chet Ubetcha and various other denizens of Dimmsdale growing beards after waiting ten days for Sparky to save Timmy from the well.
212	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "And Then There's Fraud", Peter and Quagmire set up a CutawayGag that leads to the unedited, [[OverlyLongGag 3-minute]] opening to ''The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show''. When it's finally over, Peter and Quagmire look like they've aged 50 years, complete with them sporting long white beards.
213	* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/FanboyAndChumChum'' episode "Schoolhouse Lock", where Fanboy and Chum Chum (who are prepubescent boys, mind you) manage to grow beards in the span of three minutes.
214	* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' uses this a couple of times:
215	** In "Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain", GIR is accidentally [[BrainUploading uploaded into Zim's base computer]], trapping Zim in the house and quickly driving him crazy with his antics. Zim decides to wait GIR out, only for a quick TimeSkip of ''a year'' showing he's still stuck in the house and has grown a beard ([[RuleOfFunny despite the fact that Irkens don't normally have hair]]).
216	** In "Future Dib", Dib gets trapped in a cage by Zim. The end of the episode shows that he's still stuck there, now having grown a full grey beard.
217	* Happens to Superman in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Hereafter".
218	* Happens to Supes again in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDarkApokolipsWar'', after [[spoiler:Darkseid injects liquid Kryptonite into him, robbing him of his powers.]]
219	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Parodied. Stumpy, who is a kid, somehow grows a gray beard after being stranded on an island for ''less than a day''. So does Kaeloo, who is also a kid... and female.
220	* Another serious version in the ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' episode "Beyond the Aquila Rift". The protagonist Thom has a neatly-trimmed beard, but when he wakes from his LotusEaterMachine into the real world his beard is long and filthy and his clothes are rags.
221	* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] again in ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw''. While trapped in the time stream, Dakota, Cavendish, Perry, and Doofenshmirtz apparently grow these. It's shortly revealed that Doofenshmirtz made everyone wear fake beards in an attempt to lighten the mood.
222	* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984'':
223	** "Eight Take-Away One Equals Panic" features an ImagineSpot of all the children having long gray beards after reuniting with one another after 100 years, [[GirlsWithMustaches including the girls Skeeter and Piggy]].
224	** "Six-to-Eight Weeks" has a musical number called "Waiting for You", which has the children sing about how hard it is for them to be patient for their playhouse to arrive in the mail. One part shows Kermit and Gonzo playing with a ball while both of them have long gray beards.
225	* The ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'' episode "Now Museum, Now You Don't" had Scooby and Shaggy falsely accused of stealing the samurai swords. In response, they have an ImagineSpot of spending the rest of their lives in jail, where they are seen with long gray beards and [[TallyMarksOnThePrisonWall countless tally marks etched on the walls of their cells]].
226	* The hero of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' grows one in the fifty years between seasons 4 and 5. But otherwise doesn't age. Lampshaded by [[BigBad Aku]]
227	-->'''Aku:''' "But he hasn't even aged, like at all! He just grew that stupid beard!"
228	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
229	** Parodied in the episode "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade", when Homer and Bart spend day after day sitting on the couch watching TV. Bart grows ''a stubble of his own''.
230	** Many other episodes, when Homer spends a lot of time waiting or doing nothing, have his stubble growing into a beard (visually indicated by it getting a bit fuzzy).
231	* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "Smurf Van Winkle", where the only characters seen with any Time Passage Beards are the Smurfs that claim that Lazy has slept for a few hundred years. The whole thing was a FakedRipVanWinkle, since the Smurfs were wearing fake beards.
232	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': When Cartman (and later Kyle) awakes from a coma, he's got a big beard. [[SubvertedTrope But it's just a facewarmer]], he's only been out for a day or so.
233	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
234	** In "Clams", Mr. Krabs makes [=SpongeBob=] and Squidward look out for the clam that ate his millionth dollar. After three days, all three have become ragged and grown beards; Squidward rips his off in frustration.
235	** [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in the episode "Pressure". Sandy and Spongebob have a footrace, which Spongebob wins by a lot. When Sandy arrives at the finish line, Spongebob chides her for being slow while wearing a fake beard and speaking in an old man's voice. Afterwards, he rips off the beard.
236	** "Squid on Strike" also has Squidward's ImagineSpot after realizing that he and [=SpongeBob=] are on strike "even if it takes ''forever!''" (They are in the exact same spots, but are now old, with beards that trail on the ground.)
237	--->[[MemeticMutation ...nyeh, Squidward? ...nyeh, Squidward? ...nyeh, Squidward?]]
238	** "Patty Hype" uses this as well. When Spongebob is waiting for customers to come to his burger stand, he repeats the phrase, "I'm ready!" as his present self, a middle-aged man, an elderly man, and a tombstone. Fortunately, it was AllJustADream.
239	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow'' episode "The Saga of Beta Ray Bill", this happens to Thor when he winds up in the abandoned space station. He sits in a corner waiting for someone to show up, and eventually he's sporting a long, full beard, and [[SanitySlippage treating]] {{Mjolnir}} as a CompanionCube.
240	* The ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' episode "Birds" shows Robin to have grown a beard after the mutated mockingbirds forced him to live inside the chimney of Titans Tower when they took over his room.
241	* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E30FieldsOfHoney Fields of Honey]]", where Babs is looking for a personal hero in old cartoons. As she sits in the Acme Looniversity archive the camera pans around and when it comes back to her she has a long gray beard and a cane. She tosses the cane aside, then rips the beard off and is about to storm off in frustration but decides to watch one more film.
242	* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'':
243	** In ''Island'', Owen grows a full beard while stranded with nothing but the confessional and Mr. Coconut for company. Hilariously, Heather assumes his beard is fake and tries to rip it off, as it's only been a day, but is taken aback when it doesn't come off.
244	** In ''Action'', Owen grows his beard again while lost in the woods for two days. He's not the only one, as Chris is also sporting a beard while waiting for him, Courtney, and Duncan to find their way back to the film lot.
245	* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'' episode, "[[Recap/TUFFPuppyS1E6DogDazeInternalAffairs Dog Daze]]"; Dudley gets fired from T.U.F.F. when Snaptrap [[BrainwashedAndCrazy hypnotizes him into acting crazy]] and destroying the Chief's pies, T.U.F.F. Headquarters, and the carnival. When Kitty discovers the hypnotic email on Dudley's computer, she sets out to find Dudley, and when she finds him, he has a beard. Kitty points out that Dudley has only been gone for 20 minutes and is in a crowded coffee shop, then asks him if his beard is real. Dudley tells her that his beard is fake but came with the latte he bought.
246	* In the ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' episode "The Waste of Time," a time-stranded Wander and Sylvia take TheSlowPath and wait fifty years to get to the point where they can prevent their former selves from ever deciding to time-travel in the first place. The "old" Wander has a beard. [[spoiler:This is a particularly odd {{Invoked}} example as the same episode revealed that Wander is an extremely LongLived, potentially ''immortal'' being who hasn't visibly aged in at least a thousand years, and WordOfGod has it that [[https://owner-of-wendys.tumblr.com/post/142775435584/so-was-wander-faking-being-in-super-crotchety he was wearing a fake beard to make Sylvia feel better about getting old.]]]]
247	* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': In "Rooms", Panda stumbles across an amateur film that Grizz made called ''Crowbar Jones'', in which he also plays [[MuseAbuse a nerdy, whiny caricature of Panda called "Pando"]]. In the film, Pando spends 40 years in the bathroom after promising that he won't take long, and he's greeted by an elderly Crowbar Jones, played by Grizz wearing a fake beard. It's here that the ticked-off Panda finally has enough and goes to confront Grizz about his movie.
248	* Spoofed in the ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'' episode "Finding Hershel", Master Yo instructs Yin and Yang to watch a seemingly-harmless rock named Hershel for their training. After an unspecified amount of time, the twins started to grow beards. Growing impatient, Yang rips off his beard in frustration while Yin shaves hers off while complaining.
249	* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] on ''WesternAnimation/ZigAndSharko''. After waiting for some time, Sharko and Marina both end up growing these, and they are a shark and a mermaid woman respectively.
250	[[/folder]]
251

Context Main / TimePassageBeard